RFID me likey!

Have you been listening to the news lately, they have this new government device called the RFID or Radio Frequency Identification Device that they want to install on cars. This device is widely used in other countries for IT Asset Tracking, Library Book Identification, Race Timing, Passports, Mobile Payments, Transportation Payments, Product Tracking, Human Implants, Schools & Universities and so much more. The LTO’s goal is to mainstream not only vehicle registration and also to deter carnapping.

This kind of news is readily welcomed, not only will it speed up the registration, it can also ensure the compliance of government regulations, once more if they would really deter carnapping, then everything is going to be great.

Unfortunately, privacy rights issues are being raised. A militant legislator said on the news that this device can be used by the government as a “spychip”, he also had pointed out that motorist will also be burdened with an added P350 during registration.

But on the other hand, if only high officials of the LTO and police can access the databases, it doesn’t pose so much of a problem, and the information stored in the chip are usual information you would give to your banker, your credit card consultant, your doctor, oh wait, the information you give out to these people is much more sensitive compared to what the chip would be storing.

So I guess, the chip for me poses no problems, I have heard a lot of people who had their cars stolen, some had just bought their car after almost two years of savings, some have cars that they really care and so many more stories I think this blog cannot accommodate, if we could actually diminish this from happening, well bravo. As for spying and the works, I think the greatest fear would be for the ultra rich or the high profile personalities who would rather stay out the limelight or get blackmailed or be harassed, but I believe that if someone really want to do harm on someone else, you won’t need a chip for that, there are other ways to get this sensitive info. I also think it’s for the greater good, if the majority will benefit from this move. And as for the “spychip issue”, I for one would really want to know how many cars my governor has, and with the salary he makes, I would really like an explanation how he was able to attain such number of cars, wouldn’t you?

The more they multiply, the stupider they get!

Have you ever had a bad day because of stupid people? Back in my youth, you could just count with your fingers the number of stupid people you know. But nowadays, I cannot understand that they seem to be multiplying by the hundreds now. By the time I’m pushing myself with a wheel chair, I have this funny feeling that they would come by the thousands. It’s like as if the stars are right for them to meet up and procreate or something.

I’m not talking about dumb people; they are in a different category, a bit annoying but forgivable in my eyes. When I said stupid, I mean these kinds of people:

1. A parent who hits his/her child, these are the ones who really make me mad all day long. You’ve been blessed by God with this small miracle and when he or she is barely walking, the parent would stupidly start hitting. A lot of people would wish what you got, but you hit this walking wonder just because you don’t want to be bothered while you’re drinking or doing dope.

2. A teacher that dispenses verbal attack on a student. Just because you had a bad day, doesn’t give you the right to snap at your students. You must be really stupid to think that parents sent their kids to where you teach so you could traumatize and terrorize them. The most atrocious act of a teacher would be to actually snap at a child just on a whim or a habit. If you want respect, earn it, don’t expect it to be given to you because you can yell and make fun of them. For one, you’re the adult, so don’t act like a child.

3. A pedophile, so your parents didn’t hug you as much, or they hug/etc you too much, what right to you have to hurt and abuse a child? No matter what you’ve been thru, you never EVER have that right to dispense this kind of atrocity to another human being.


These are just some example of people who I considered stupid; I despise these kinds of people. But it seems they are multiplying. Reeducating everyone about the rights of a child would be a small but overwhelming step in helping them out. Please help stop these crimes against children. Please be an advocate of the Bantay Bata Program. They can’t fight alone, they need someone to hold their hand and be strong for them.


Bantay Bata 163

Missing you

i recently found my fave song online, i love the music of the 80's, i think the music of that age suited us well, even up to now. whenever i open the radio, i would never hear it, so it was to my surprised {yes everyone, i still get surprised when it comes to technology and the computer} that searching youtube for recent fave songs that they got the music "Missing you".

music so it seems, takes you back to when you first heard it, to what you were doing and even to the feeling when you first latched on to the tune, then the lyrics become a litany in your head then you co-relate it to something in your life.

"Missing you" is a love song, a heartbreak-in-denial type, probably you'll realize its a song that really picked me up a little bit during one of the most trying time of my life, it wasn't new when i first heard it, but it had a big inpact on me that i sung it whenever and wherever i go for the next 3 years. i eventually stopped, my environment was changing, so singing it was considered an old thing to do.

but now that i can humble accept that im ageing, i tried to look for it again. the the nostalgia is as strong as the first time i start singing it. funny huh?

anyways, here the lyrics, maybe im not the only fool who actually sing this song ...peace!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqyWgGgIe8w

Missing You

Every time I think of you
I always catch my breath
And I'm still standing here
And you're miles away
And I'm wondering why you left
And there's a storm that's raging
Through my frozen heart tonight
I hear your name in certain circles
And it always makes me smile
I spend my time
Thinking about you
And it's almost driving me wild
And its my heart that's breaking
Down this long distance line tonight
I ain't missing you at all
Since you've been gone
Away
I ain't missing you
No matter
What my friends say
There's a message
In the wild
And I'm sending you
this signal tonight
You don't know
How desperate I've become
And it looks like I'm losing this fight
In your world
I have no meaning
Though I'm trying hard
to understand
And it's my heart that's breaking
Down this long distance line tonight
I ain't missing you at all
Since you've been gone
Away
I ain't missing you
No matter
What i might say
there's a message that I'm sending out
Like a telegraph to your soul
And if I can't bridge this distance
Stop this heartbreak overload
I ain't missing you at all
Since you've been gone
Away
I ain't missing you
No matter
What i might say
I ain't missing you
I ain't missing you
no way
since you've been gone away
I keep lying to myself
And there's a storm that's raging
Through my frozen heart tonight
I ain't missing you at all
Since you've been gone
Away
I ain't missing you
No matter
What my friends say
Ain't missing you
I ain't missing you
I ain't missing you
I keep lying to myself
Ain't missing you
I ain't missing you
I ain't missing you
I ain't missing you
I ain't missing you
I ain't missing you
Ain't missing you
Oh no
No matter what my friends might say
I ain't missing you

The black sheep’s mom

I’ve been meaning to write this article for awhile now, but I never seem to have the time, but of course that’s my excuse. Why couldn’t I do it? Well let’s just say I never wanted to talk about me in a derogatory fashion, I’d rather talk about how cool or great I am, but I guess, I would be weaving a good fiction story again. Tsk Tsk.

I’m not such a bad human being, just a misguided one, again my excuse [told you I never like to say anything mean about me . . . *wink*], I admit, I’m not stupid enough not to know that the choices I made had a huge impact on the people around me, I’m one of those people who actually have an above average IQ {that is to my knowledge..Hehehe} so I can’t use the “coz I’m stupid excuse” for my actions or decisions, anyway who would want to be classified as stupid? Like I said, I am not such a bad human being, just a bitter one. I hated anything about me, who I was, what I was and how I was. I know, I didn’t get me either, but that’s how I could describe my thinking or my feeling. I won’t go into details about my great stunts, but let me just say, I left a lot of heartaches anywhere I go.

Saying that, you might understand the topic of my blog, to the “classified stupid”, I am the black sheep, and this blog is for my mom.

I hate my mom, but I love her more. I don’t know the psych mechanics of it all, but if a child screws up, most of the time they’re bound to blame their parents like I did. My mom wasn’t a saint either, I don’t know if I tried to block it out in my mind, but I never ever heard her tell me she loved me, her actions as a parent confused me too, and of course her reprimands always hit me like I didn’t deserve to live, evidently she had good reason to be, for I wasn’t such a saintly type of person either.

As a child I’ve was rebellious to say the least, like in a teenage movie, I enjoy wallowing in my pitiful life, trying to be great but failing, making a world of my own where the actors seem not to follow directions. It was a hateful life that I won’t wish upon even on my worst enemy. The more I grew up, the more I rebelled, it seems the right course at that time. It wasn’t worth it, the more I went against them, the more alienated I become, the more I become alienated, the more I miss being with them. Wanting them in my life was essential, but on the other hand I was getting hurt no matter what. It was such a hurtful cycle of wanting to be close to them and shoving them back just in case they might hurt me again that it took its toll on what I call my fragile psyche. I’ve learn that having a façade was the best way to live, the more I hurt the more I smile, when I cry it was sometimes an act, it became a great habit that it came to a point when I couldn’t differentiate what was the truth and what was a lie anymore.

Good thing I wasn’t running out of luck, you see, if there’s one thing good about my life is that I am very lucky. Of all my siblings I was always the lucky one, they deserved what I got, like debut, good school, better clothes, etc. and I was always surrounded by people who loved and cared for me. They were the once who hauled me to the therapist and had my head examined, yes, I am insane, I have a certificate to back me up that I was locked up. But enough about me, like I said this blog is for my mom.

My mom, I cried for her when I found out she passed away, I cried during the mass as well, but I’m still waiting to cry hard, I haven’t had the luxury of really having a good cry, I have tried to erase the memory of her passing, I can honestly say that I cannot remember when she died. My mom and I weren’t close, I never been her fave and never will, we never tried to reach out to each other coz it was to much hassle I guess, but in as much as I hated her, I did love her in my way, I still can’t give in to actually crying hard for her, you see, not yet, I believe if I do have a hard cry, I will be relieved and move on with my life, at least if I don’t stop mourning her, she’ll be always in my sick pretty little head, forever holding me.. ….

[blog notes started December 11, 2008, blog notes finished September 17, 2009]

Fake dealers

Ever since, dealers have always been part of the sari-sari store business. There are the soda (softdrinks) dealers, the beer suppliers, bread suppliers, school supply dealers, powdered milk suppliers, cigarette dealers to name a few.

But sadly, there are a number of unscrupulous people preying on the sari-sari biz, they come in all forms and sizes. Due to technology, They show you fake identification cards, give you impressive calling cards, introduce to you their supervisor who speaks in fluent english, produces "official" receipts and even comes with a van full of "products".

At a recent convention ( yes people, we have our own convention -- we, the small and medium entrepreneurs actually make the big wholesaler groceries more richer), the store owners were ask about woes in running this particular business, the problems ranged from very funny to serious.

The most serious of them all was about fake dealers, i rather call them con artists.... or swindlers... they victimize owners without a thought that owners worked hard on the capital they put into the biz.

these are some types of swindlers.

The Fake Rice supplier: This type show you small packs (size of a fist) of types of rice. when one gets to pick your choice they come back with the promised sack/s of rice. when you unpack your rice...you'll realize its less than 50 kilograms, according to the store owners who spoke in that convention he got 39 kilograms for the 50 kilograms he bought.

The Fake Personal Care Dealer: this type gives you a list of the product you want, when you pick up the things you want they deliver and you pay for them, they have real packaging, but with closer examination you realize the smell is missing. for instance a bottle of cologne would have the original bottle but has water in them instead of cologne.

THe Fake School supply dealer: They deliver pens without ink, notebook of 50 leaves when you ordered 70 leaves ( let's face it, if the buyer sees 70 leaves printed on the notebook, you'll assume it to be correct rather than count the pages of each notebook...specially if a buyer bought 10 reams notebooks = to 100 notebooks).

The Mobile Wholesaler: They sell anything and everything. The first delivery is legit, but the second delivery, specially if you order in bulk/boxes, they hit you hard, for each box, the upper half is legit merchandise and the lower half contains packs of crushed coconut shells.

The Fake Detergent Soap Dealers: These type gives you "product" with real packaging but not the real product inside, you'll only know when a "pissed" customer comes back for a refund.




i could go on with the list .... put it this way, think of every kind of product in the market.... for every product, there's like a dozen fake dealers....

so let us all keep our watch .... be alert ... check and double check identification cards.... with the technology now, we can arm ourselves with cellular phones.... yes...the one with the camera, for as real dealer, taking his picture is no big issue... but the fake ones.... lets just say the can join the Olympics... they could be our representative on the 200m dash...they are quite fast :)

Gotta love those Brats!

thank goodness for kids.

1. they make a mess.
2. they make you tired.
3. they don't eat their veggies.
4. they annoy you to death.
5. they keep you up all night when theyre born.
6. they don't stop asking "why".
7. they never forget to ask for their allowance.
8. they always forget their chores.
9. they keep changing thier minds.
10.they talk too much.

should i go on?
{read again number 1 then read number one at the bottom, same as numbers 2-10}
thank goodness for kids.

1. theyre just being artistic
2. they make you smille with all the insane antics.
3. they make sure i eat my veggies to make me healthy.
4. they make you feel alive with their dreams.
5. they make you feel NEEDED all the time.
6. they make you sooo smart by being able to answer all of their questions.
7. they remind you of your responsibilities.
8. they make you learn how to decipline them with love not with harsh words.
9. they make you feel really stable.
10.they never stop saying i love you mama.

should i go on?

Different types of Customers

There are the regular customers and there are THOSE customers.
What i mean is, after serving customers for awhile you'll

notice something else. The regular customers are those no-

nonsense buyers, these are the ones that just drop by at your store

and buy stuff.... But after awhile, you get THOSE customers who

are a league of their own. They come in all sizes and types.

the High-priced customers: they're the type who are looking for a

much higher priced items. Example for these buyers are the

ones who are still looking for P50 per kilo of rice when it's all over

the news that rice had gone down already, in this case, we try to

explain that the P50 per kilo now is at P42 and the P40/kilo is now

P35... but still they think i'm just trying to sell them b.s. to make a

buck... so they go to other stores and buy the same kind of rice at

the price they think it should be.....


The Two-brand but only one thing we're buying customers... these

type go to your store and go "can i please buy some colgate, close

-up green" or " 1 EQ pampers large please". it makes you wonder if

your going to give them colgate or close-up, or if its EQ or

pampers... when you ask them...they look at you as if your stupid

or something. Try educating them a little bit, you'll feel the blunt

of their tongue or feel really mean for making them feel dumb.

The Mind Changers - these types are really hard to please, they are

the ones who come up the store and and ask for something like

Ovaltine, then after a few minutes would come back and decide he

wants Milo instead, and later in the afternoon would bemoan the

fact that we should have offered him nescafe 3-in-1 earlier coz he's

getting sleeping with the hot milo he drank. Then later in

the evening would tell us that he should have kopiko coz he's

really sleep now...(which at that point would get us thinking, please

don't buy coffee coz you won't get any sleep), and behold by

morning he'll be at the store, asking for ovaltine and the cycle

repeats itself again. Believe me they come in hot drink brand mind

changer, diaper brand mind changer, toothpaste, shampoo (and for

the love of God --there are over 12 different brands of shanpoo,

with over 6 variants for each brand), noodles and SARDINES (don't get me started on sardines)

The Diet Concious - not just the chubby ones, we get more slender

ones who are diet concious customers. These are customers who

insists on buying "JUNK" food that's healthy, canned goods without

preservatives, powdered juice that's fresh, softdrinks without

calories, and chocolate bars that have more cocoa than sugar (coz

they've been told by a teacher its less fattening if its content have

more cocoa).

The Highly Educated customers - these are the great einsteins of

all customers, they have good and bad comments on every single

product, from what the contents are in a certain product, how it is

made, its nutritional value, how it affects the environment, or how

you would smell after using the product of course depending on

your body type. They're the most beloved by others customers,

coz they know everything (product wise). Although to be fair,

sometimes their comments are uncalled for, like ovaltine for

example....our sales plummet after one einstein said, the reason it

taste different from milo is because its made in a cointainer where

cockroaches stay during the evenings when production stops.

I did ask the einstein where he go the info, (maybe i thought he

work for ovaltine or something... he told me a fmily member told

him so...by the way that family member does not work for ovaltine

also..hehehehe).

And lastly, the tambay customer, these are the type of customer wherein all they do is stay at the store, they wake up and stays with the store until closing time, only leaving when nature calls. they keep the other customers in line, they also act as extended salesmen of the store, talking about new products that has come in and enticing other customers to buy more.

Don't get me wrong, i love my customers, they pay for my

overhead, and it makes me smile a lot with the stories the weave

on why they think a product should be bought and others not. But

sometimes, i can really see how a person can be molded by a TV

personality, a family member or even by a teacher when it comes

to buying a product. The sad part of it all, sometimes, misguided

info can hurt rather than help a product.

Puregold v.s. Makro

Ever wondered which is better? well i'm a member of both stores, they both cater mostly to us smaller people who have either have a small sari-sari store or a canteen-cum-restaurant, i would prefer to have both, but heck..i got a small space, so it the sari-sari store biz for me. Anyways back to the original topic, Puregold or Makro? They are both wholesalers, selling food and non-food items to us retailers.

Makro has lower prices, bigger carts, store and parking lots, friendlier merchandisers. They also have free stuff if you buy a certain product, which would mean more money for a businesswoman or more savings for a homemaker. Drawbacks are they don't bags your purchases, you'll have to have the initiative to get boxes and put your merchandise in them when you get to your car/jeep, if you want bags, you will have to buy them from the cashier, the good thing about boxing you purchases is you can get as many boxes as you want, as long as there are stocks. you can resell the boxes at junk shops to get more money.

As i've said the parking area is really huge, but the store location is not conducive for small entrepreneurs since the tricycle and jeepney zone is kind of far. so if you don't own a car, tricycle or any type of conveyance, stick to puregold. Be careful when you're using you credit card or your atm for debit because some cashier are not well verse in understanding your instruction when handling cards, for short they don't listen pretty well, you tell them to debit this much from your atm and charge the rest to the credit card, ask them if they got it, and if they say yes, make sure she does what you want, i learned the hard way, i asked to debit only P3,000 and charge my credit card the remaining P12,000+, she confirmed she understood but did the opposite instead. Another time was when i ask to debit my purchase in my LANDBANK atm card, the cashier informed me that they can't since the store only allow certain atm cards, when i told her i already used my card in that store before and anyway there's a picture of the cards that they can actually debit from, it had a Landbank atm card in that picture , (you know the picture of ATM cards that the store allows to debit from, its usually posted on top of their cash register). Well anyways, she told me the picture was just a picture, she can only allow BPI, because Landbank was not expressnet, i tried to explain to her that Landbank was also expressnet but since i couldn't make her understand, i had to ask her to ask her supervisor to decide, the supervisor arrived, she was told that my card can be allowed, so i was able to buy my purchases. Another time was when i bought an appliance and wanted it on installment basis, if you are in a hurry, ask the cashier if she REALLY knows how to process the installment system on your card, because if not, she'll just charge it straight, and when you recieve the copy and see that in't not on instalment basis, you have to go to the process of informing a supervisor, having the purchased cancelled, and you have wait for the supervisor to explain to the cashier how to charge the credit card on installment basis. For short, it will take a lot of time, so my advice, bring cash to Makro.

There are two really great things about Makro, the first one is their customer service, very courteous, very knowlegable in store policies, etc..The second is that, their veggies and fish are really FRESH, talk about fresh from the farm or sea.

For Puregold, you can spot their stores anywhere now, especially the jeepney route, so basically even if some of their stores have limited parking space, it's not a problem, the jeepneys are always there. Prices are a little bit higher compared to Makro, but not all of them. THey have a reward program, for every P300 of participating product or P1000 of any purchase you get a point, accumulated points can be redeemed into gift certificates.

If your just starting out and don't have much capital yet, Puregold is your best bet. You see at Makro you have to buy by bulk, some are packed in 6's, 12's, 20's, etc., some even you have to buy in boxes, but when you do buy them in boxes, you get them at a lower cost. At Puregold, you may buy even just one item per piece, so the chances of buying alot of something your customers won't want is low. Also at Puregold, the range of products is awesome, you have a lot of variety of each product to choose from. Cashiers are faster and know how to use the debit system and the credit card system as well. Merchandisers and Security Guards greet you with a smile and are fast to help you out when you need it (lifting boxes, asking which aisle is a certain product, etc.). Drawbacks, for starters, their baggers are required to count the product, so if they miss the actual count, you'll have to wait for them to either be able to guess the right answer or for them to recount your purchases again, either way, you'll be waiting longer than you expect. Baggers also have a habit of being insolent at times, specially when they are near their break time, one experience i had was when i asked the bager to box my purchases, since there was no boxes at hand, he said he'll just go get some. It took him a long time to return, by the time he returned the cashier had finished ringing up my purchases, i already had paid for them, and another bagger had started to boxed them. We asked what took him so long, he said he couldn't find any boxes and anyway he was near his break, then he proceeded to talk to another bagger instead of helping the other bagger. Another drawback is the customer service, i think they are overworked or something, most of them are grumpy, so when you ask a question they would refer you to the person next to her and when you ask that person she won't know the answer and i'll be told to ask the first person i was talking to, at this point the first one would be on the microphone announcing something...so your best bet, ask the Security Guard, they know most of the questions you need, one female guard once told me about the return policy of their store, she was really helpful.

so you see, they both have good things and bad things about them, i still go to both stores, which store i go to depends on what i am buying or how much time i have, if i need only a couple of things for the store, i go to Puregold, if i am in a hurry, i go to Makro. The drawbacks, you learn to deal with it, anyway, so far i think they are trying to fix their boo-boos, they are making an effort.